Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Churchkhela
Strings of walnuts dipped repeatedly in thickened grape juice until candle-shaped, Georgia's ancient traveling sweet.
Georgian · medium · serves 8
prep 30 min · cook 30 min
~671 cal · 15g protein · 31g carbs · 59g fat · 6g fiber · 9g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Churchkhela is one of Georgia's oldest and most distinctive sweets, sometimes called Georgian Snickers, though it long predates any candy bar. Made at the autumn grape harvest, it was once carried by soldiers and travellers as a durable, energy-rich food.
Walnuts (or hazelnuts) are threaded onto a string, then dipped again and again into tatara, a warm pudding of grape juice thickened with flour, building up layer after layer into a smooth, candle-like coating. Hung to dry for days or weeks, it becomes firm and chewy, naturally sweet from the grape must alone, with the nuts giving it substance.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
3 cups walnuts, whole
6 cups grape juice (or grape must)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar (if juice is tart)
Instructions
1
Thread the walnut halves onto strong thread, leaving a loop to hang them by.
2
Make the tatara: whisk the flour into a little cold grape juice, then cook with the rest and the sugar, stirring, until thick and glossy.
3
Dip each string of nuts into the warm tatara to coat, let it set, and dip again to build up layers.
✎ Chef’s note
Let each coat cool and firm before the next dip. Patience and repeated dips are what give churchkhela its smooth, thick shell.
4
Hang the coated strings in a cool, airy place to dry for several days until firm.
Georgian harvest tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Racha. The prized product here is the ham. Rachan lori is salted and cold-smoked slowly in the traditional black kitchen, a room where hearth smoke is left to fill the space rather than sent up a chimney, and the hams hang in it through the mountain winter.
🗺️
Georgia. Walnuts do the job here that cream does elsewhere, ground into sauces for beans, aubergine and poultry and loosened with vinegar or pomegranate. The spice cupboard runs to blue fenugreek, dried marigold and coriander seed in the blend called khmeli suneli, and khachapuri changes shape as you travel, arriving in Adjara on the Black Sea as an open boat with an egg slid into it.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Georgia
Imeruli Khachapuri (Cheese-Stuffed Bread)A golden, pan-baked flatbread sealed around a molten heart of tangy, salty cheese.
LobioKidney beans simmered and half-crushed with walnuts, coriander, and Georgian spice, served in clay with cornbread.
Chvishtari (Cornmeal Cheese Bread)Griddled cornmeal cakes packed with young melting cheese, crisp outside and molten within, from the mountains of western Georgia.
Browse all Georgia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Georgia meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Churchkhela?
Strings of walnuts dipped repeatedly in thickened grape juice until candle-shaped, Georgia's ancient traveling sweet.
Where does Churchkhela come from?
Churchkhela is a Georgian dish from Racha, Georgia.
Can Churchkhela be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Churchkhela recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Churchkhela safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Churchkhela take to make?
About 60 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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